Reviews

…a bracing experience. This is a rough-hewn and extremely sturdy music, profoundly honest about what it is and what it’s doing. ‘String Quartet’ may be the most unrelaxing piece of music I’ve heard of late. And that, though it sounds like nothing of the sort, is a compliment!

Finnissy is stretching his players – irrational timings and unexpected intervals – so there’s none of the pop condescension of boom boom Minimalism. Finnissy hollows out the romantic legacy from the inside, spinning lines so tense they sound as if they are traced on a bomb ready to explode. Perhaps the febrile beauty admired by Finnissy’s devotees is not so much the pinnacle of art as the ring of truth.

The Cantamen ensemble play the [Trio] with tenderness and sympathy. This performance [of Gemini] has real fire and conviction. Caroline Balding fulfils {Chaconne’s] virtuosic demands with distinction.

The performances are superlative in every way and should place this duo firmly in the front rank of contemporary music interpreters. In much of the music of this period, the formidable technical and intellectual demands placed on players can often produce sterile and cerebral results, yet here the clear understanding of form and structure is combined with genuine passion for the medium. Kate Romano’s playing throughout is exemplary, displaying both stunning technical prowess and a real flair for the dramatic potential of these works. Performance ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Sound ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Not just a collection of clarinet works, but a well-devised retrospective of British music over three decades. Romano is an accomplished and sympathetic advocate, not least in her informative booklet notes.

variety is one thing [this CD] can’t be accused of lacking. Harper’s Byrd transcriptions for brass form an appropriate, and well-played, backdrop to his own Byrd derived Fantasia III, an efficient piece of work. [Cresswell’s vocal works are] finely performed by Jane Manning in recordings which make admirable use of church resonance

In the still undervalued genre of chamber opera, Fanny Robin deserves more frequent performances. Scottish Opera’s production is captured to telling spatial effect.

[The Sackman piece] is a genuine string quartet and, therefore, a rarity. A truly memorable work. One hesitates to say it but it is almost a perfect work. Nicholson’s quartet is the more profound in statement whereas the Sackman is more immediate. But both quartets are works of a rare and distinctive quality and the Bochmann Quartet’s performances are convincing. I would not want to be without this disc.

The Metier Division of Divine Art always has something new to tempt adventurous listeners and so it is with a new release from this label. This is a totally unique sound experience which fuses classical art-music with the popular idioms and new techniques of performance and recording, involving many of Britain’s top names in the worlds of DJ-ing, electronics and sound design. These are fascinating works that bring a myriad of unusual textures, colours and sonorities allowing the imagination to expand. I cannot imagine the performances being bettered. Pianists, Kate Halsall and Fumiko Miyachi deserve a special mention as the backbone of many of these performances. They are well recorded at various venues and there are useful booklet notes.

This highly unusual release includes two projects, as the CD title implies. The concerto disc is the yang to the yin of the Maché disc. Or, to suggest a more relevant com­parison, rock and roll versus jazz. The four concertos for double keyboards share a driving sense of rhythm and the sort of repetitive patterns associated with Minimalism. As a kind of aural decoration, these works are interesting, and even alluring. The Machés cover a much greater range of theatricality. In general, they flow at a much more leisurely tempo than the concertos, at moments rhapsodic, even dreamy … a kind of broad experience, for those interested in stretching their listening ex­perience into new worlds of sound.

Halsall, a pianist, mixes genres; the album stems from a project started in 2012 exploring the traditional piano concerto in new ways. She uses two pianos, various electro-acoustical accompaniment, some jazz and rock instruments, and film. Halsall takes music and breaks it down into blocks to create something new, and writing about it is like breaking it down again; it is an experimental album full of new ideas, it’s got a compulsive air about it.

Endlessly fascinating, engaging, challenging, puzzling, beautiful, thought-provoking and charming. Pace’s intimate acquaintance with the totality of History is apparent in his commanding performance … this is a magnificent achievement for both composer and performer.

Both composer and executant here are truly prodigious figures. A vast compendium of virtuoso-pianistic and world-historical thought. It is hardly possible to comment significantly on such a phenomenon in a capsule review, but I heartily recommend this profoundly dedicated undertaking.

Don’t look here for the banalities of programme music. This is a rare musical proposition which surely deserves to stand as one of the great pianistic statements of this or any age.

The music of English composer Michael Finnissy is difficult to categorize. It is excep­tionally multifaceted in both its surface and substance… The composer has given Pace’s performances and this recording his enthusiastic recommenda­tion, so it is to be assumed that the performance is definitive…. Pace brings to the project a true mastery of the composer’s interpretative challenges. The History stands as a major work of a major composer. For those who wish to take an unforgettable journey, this is a work, like much great art, that embraces everything and, in the process, tells us something about ourselves.

Interpreted by Pace with superb dedication, Finnissy’s musical montage mixes autobiography with philosophical reflection and critique, quotation, sharp observation and personal conviction. Commenting self-reflexively upon the language of the piano, this intricately allusive music issues a committed challenge to our own responsiveness and literacy.

Superb five-CD set of Finnissy’s colossal piano work… a major achievement and one that should appeal strongly to lovers of contemporary and piano music alike. It should be obvious that students or admirers of Finnissy in particular, and those interested in contemporary music in general, will want to get this full cycle … and it’s reasonably-priced. It’s hard to see how a more suitable and sympathetic performer could be involved. The acoustic is sympathetic and neither adds nor takes away anything from our necessary concentration on the music. This is a major release of a major project and one which should be investigated by as wide an audience as possible. Execution and presentation are as excellent as the music is compelling.

Photography as a retrospective score of our lives; but scores are open to interpretation. Finnissy keeps his cultural aperture forever wide-angled, ideas and sounds papped ferociously. Believe me, if you could see the score you’d grasp the scope of the enterprise. Ian Pace is Finnissy’s David Bailey, each note shaded to perfection, structures translucently and sharply lit, defining sonic images of our time.

Clocking in at well over three hundred minutes in duration, Michael Finnissy’s eleven-movement cycle for solo piano is a gargantuan effort for both composer and performer. One cannot imagine a more heartfelt or technically skilful performance of this work. Finnissy’s musical language revels in a complex interplay of far flung reference points, ample virtuosity, and a penchant for pungent, dense harmonies and a coruscating rhythmic grid. If there is a through line to be found in the History of Photography in Sound, it is [Finnissy’s] spirit of generosity bestowing upon us all the many musical ideas Finnissy has to offer: and that’s quite a lot. Revel, wallow even, in the embarrassment of riches and abundant virtuosity on display here. This is a boxed set that is wholeheartedly recommended.

Superb interpretation … admirably comprehensive sleeve notes … persuasive advocacy of Michael Finnissy’s pioneering but always human music.